Open Source Philosophy and the Dawn of Aviation

Mattos, Bento Silva de

doi:10.5028/jatm.2012.04030812

Abstract:

In the early 20th century, Aviation pioneers in North America and Europe experienced quite different working ambiences. The Europeans, except for those living in England, embodied the spirit of the French Revolution; the Ameri-cans incorporated the ideas from the Industrial Revolution or, according to many historians, the English Revolution. Due to this fact, Aviation in Europe and in the United States evolved quite differently. In order to justify the establishment of those connections, the present work has described the way aviation pioneers designed and built theirflying machines and the state of aviation in North America and in Europe in the early 20th century. A collaborative working atmosphere was present among the European pioneers thanks to the French Revolution ideas that found general acceptance in Europe. The European aviation pioneers frequently exchanged information regarding aeronautical experience or even whole designs. Contrary to this, in the United States aviation, its development suffered from lack of information from the people who were competing for the firstflight. Indeed, a fierce competition among the individuals was established. The knowledge coming from Europe, noticeably from the Germans Lilienthal brothers and George Cayley, was being retransmitted by open-minded people like Octave Chanute. That is the reason why America fell behind Europe in regard to airplane technology before the broke out of World War I and a patent war started in the United States among their aviation pioneers. In France, the Aéro-Club de France was created in the last years of the 19th century. Among its objectives, one was to attest the first person to perform a flight with a heavier-than-air machine. After the Brazilian Santos-Dumont's flight with his 14bis biplane in 1906, in Paris, Wilbur Wright went to Europe in 1907 and established a workshop to continue improving the Flyer concept. Wright's supporter, Octave Chanute, had warned him that the aviation world was catching up fast, especially in France. However, Wilbur was only able to get the Flyer airborne in August 1908 in France, with disappointing results. However, impressive flights took place in late 1908 and the Wright brothers' European Flyer was the basic airplane they were able to sell to the US armed forces for the first time in 1909. After Santos-Dumont's success in flying his 14bis airplane in 1906, many of his comrades established airplane factories. Those Dumont's friends were eager to sell planes to the French government, and a competitive atmosphere settled down in the old continent. In addition, the collaborative ambience ceased because the World War I was only a matter of time.

Keywords:
Aviation; Aircraft design; Air transportation; French Revolution; Industrial Revolution; Open source

Full text available only in PDF format.

REFERENCES

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Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jul-Sep 2012

History

Received
05 Feb 2012
Accepted
24 May 2012

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[1] Angelucci, E., 2001, "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Aircraft," Chartwell Books, Edison, NJ, USA, 568 p.

[2] Culick, F. E. C., 2001, "Wright Brothers: First Aeronautical Engineers and Test Pilots," 45^th Annual Symposium of the Society of Experimental test Pilots, 26-29 September, Los Angeles.

[3] Darnton, R., 1982, "The Literary Underground," Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, USA, 272 p.

[4] FlightGlobal, 1909a, "The Wright and Voisin Types of Flight Machines", Retrieved in September, 2011, from http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfaichive/view/1909/1909%20-%200013.html
» http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfaichive/view/1909/1909%20-%200013.html

[5] FlightGlobal, 1909b, "Progressive Records", Retrieved in September, 2011, from http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfar-chive/view/1909/1909%20-%200014.html
» http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfar-chive/view/1909/1909%20-%200014.html

[6] Grant, R. and Fliegen, G., 2003, "Die Geschichte der Luftfarht", Dorling Kindersley, Munich, 452 pg.

[7] Israel, J., 2001, "Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity", p. 1650-1750, Oxford University Press, USA.

[8] Jorge, F., 1977, "As Lutas, a Glória e o Martírio de Santos Dumont", McGraw-Hill, 5^th edition, São Paulo, 362 p.

[9] Library of Congress, 2011, "Tissandier Collecction," Retrieved in September, 2011, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=tissandier&co=tisc
» http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=tissandier&co=tisc

[10] Lins de Barros, H., 2003. "Santos-Dumont e a Invenção do Vôo", 1^st Edition, Jorge Zahar Editors, 192 p.

[11] Maior, A. S., 1966, "História Geral", Cia. Editora Nacional, 4^th Edition, São Paulo, 498 p.

[12] Musa, J. L.et al, 2001, "Alberto Santos-Dumont: I Sailedthe Wind," Nova Fronteira, Brazil, 168 p.

[13] Nasa Langley, 2012. "NASA Langley Research Center," retrieved in May 2012 from http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/home/index.html
» http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/home/index.html

[14] New York Times, 1902. "Brazilian Aeronaut Pays a Visit to Thomas A. Edison," Retrieved in April, 1902, New York, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F16F63B591B728DDDAD0994DC405B828CF1D3
» http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F16F63B591B728DDDAD0994DC405B828CF1D3

[15] Pagano, L., 2012, "The Wonderful Life of Santos-Dumont", Retrieved in April, 2012, from http://santosdumontlife.blogspot.com.br/2012/03/tom-edison-airships-talk-with-santos.htm
» http://santosdumontlife.blogspot.com.br/2012/03/tom-edison-airships-talk-with-santos.htm

[16] Santos-Dumont, A., 1904, "My Airships - The History of My Life", Grand Richards, London, 328 p.

[17] Schmitt, G., 1990, "Fliegende Kisten - von Kitty Hawk bis Kiew," Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin, 192 p.

[18] Scilab, 2012, "Free Open Source Software for Numerical Computation," Retrieved in March, 2012, from http://www.scilab.org
» http://www.scilab.org

[19] SourceForge, 2012, "Find, Create, and Publish Open Source Software for Free," Retrieved in January, 2012, from http://www.sourceforge.net
» http://www.sourceforge.net

[20] Torenbeek, E. and Wittemberg, H., 2009, "Flight Physics," Springer, New York, USA, 548 p.

[21] Wikipedia, 2011, "Eiri-Avion PIK-20", Retrieved in September, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiri-Avion_PIK-20
» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiri-Avion_PIK-20

[22] Wright, O., 1988, "How we Invented the Airplane: An Illustrated History", Dover Publications, New, York, 96 p.

Brasil